Thread by @OwenJones84

Here's a thread about how completely impossible it is to have a rational conversation about Brexit.

In the 2016 referendum, I campaigned for Remain. Here's a speech I gave 3 and a half weeks before the referendum. A clip of it appeared in TV drama 'Brexit: The Uncivil War'.

https://twitter.com/peterjukes/status/1336075580404621313

I'm now told that actually I'm not a Remainer, despite campaigning for Remain in the referendum campaign in rallies in, say, Wolverhampton, London and Greater Manchester, arguing for Remain on Question Time, and writing multiple columns supporting Remain.

Here's a viral video I made before the referendum result, warning about the consequences of Tory Brexit.

It was pretty prophetic if you watch it.

Was I - am I - a critic of the EU? Had I suggested the left should debate the case for leaving the EU? Yes! 100%.

At the time, the Remain campaign told me that made me valuable because I could speak to other eurosceptics. This video went viral on Facebook in the referendum.

If I'm not a Remainer, despite not just voting for Remain, but actively campaigning for it, then fine, but using 'the 48%' is a bit meaningless because if I don't make the cut, where does that leave millions of Remainers who also voted for Remain despite being critical of the EU?

When Leave won, my view was that we had to make a result I had actively campaigned against work. Here's how I summed it up in the hours after the referendum result.

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/746170283896283136

This was a position I stuck to for the next 3 years. Make the referendum result work, search for a compromise, push for a soft Brexit, talk about issues I care about - housing, jobs, living standards, public ownership, tax justice, the climate emergency.

After the European elections, my view was that compromise was dead - nobody wanted it anymore - Remain voters had defected to the Lib Dems and Greens, the Labour membership would impose a new referendum at conference anyway, and therefore Labour had to back a new referendum.

As it happens my view was totally irrelevant and Jeremy Corbyn had decided to support a new referendum in all circumstances in the last week of the European elections because he was alarmed at the defection of Labour voters to the Lib Dems and membership support for a referendum.

Today I wrote a column arguing the reason we now have the hardest possible Brexit is because of the lies of rightwing Brexiteers, the refusal of Theresa May to compromise, the failures of Corbyn's leadership - and ultra Remainers who opposed and toxified any compromise.

The fallout of this column is a deluge of often pretty unhinged abuse - which I'm more than used to! - and a number of accounts comparing my argument to blaming women for being raped.

This is not reasonable behaviour.

And for example, this is the sort of language I normally receive from the far right. "Traitors". "Quislings". "Treasons". But this person, like me, voted for Remain.

https://twitter.com/AvpdIsapain/status/1336081814042112000

I totally get people disagreeing with me. That's fine! Again, I'm more than used to this! But what disturbs me more is that Brexit has left certain factions - who are noisy, angry, but ultimately unrepresentative - completely unable to have a rational conversation.

Am I left-wing eurosceptic who campaigned for Remain as the best of the two options on the ballot paper in 2016? Yes. Did I think we should try and make the referendum result afterwards? Yes. Did I think Labour had run out of options in the middle of 2019? Also yes.

Do I also wish unity could have been built around a soft Brexit, and do I blame the Tory Brexiteers, Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and the ultra Remainers for the failure to do so?

Yes!

Does that annoy everyone? Yes!

But it's also what I happen to believe is true.

So to conclude, it is impossible to have a rational discussion about Brexit. Hardcore Leavers and Remainers acted like they spoke for everyone. But millions were pragmatic, demonised or airbrushed out of existence, and now we are where we are - and it is grim.